Ripples
by Faith Lacking
Summary: Sanzo hated the water, there's nothing that would get this man to jump into a river, even if his life depended on it. But one day, he had to make an exception...


Authors notes:  
  
Please forgive any errors, I dont really have a beta and my computer does not have a spell check option ^^;;   
  
There was an episode in the old saiyuki series and basically, Sanzo would rather take 2 days to go around a lake than 2 hours to go through it, or it was something like that. This idea is also based off a very odd dream I had, it was very distorted but it is very similar to this story.  
  
Disclaimer:   
  
I dont own Saiyuki. Plain and simple.  
  
Normal things:  
  
Title: Ripples  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Genre: Drama;General  
  
Pairing: None, maybe a slight hint of 39, but it'd be like...a blink of 39  
  
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Sanzo sighed and rubbed his temples, his desk was starting to creak under the weight of all the papers that he had to read. A certain hyper active child had been keeping him busy, thus causing him to have more work to do than necessary. He sat down and pulled out a pen, ready to sign the documents when the door burst open. By now Sanzo was used to it, and by now he knew what to do every time it happened.  
  
"HI SANZ-" A well thrown book made contact with Goku's cranium as the boy went down with a loud thud.  
  
"Hmph..." Was all the blonde could say as he pulled out a cigarette.  
  
"That hurt!" His charge stood up and yelled at him, a red mark forming on his little head.  
  
"It was supposed to." He took a drag of his cigarette. "What the hell do you want, saru?"  
  
Goku stopped rubbing his head for a moment, as if trying to remember why he had come into the room. "Ah...oh yeah! Today I am going swimming! You want to come?"  
  
Sanzo shuddered slightly. It was true that young monks enrolling into the temple had to have lessons everynow and had to be taught how to swim. And it was not that he hated swimming, and the man could actually swim somewhat, it's that he despised almost any form of water, and all for good reason, so he constantly told himself. He grunted slightly and pointed to his paper work. "Because of you I have all this work to do. Do you honestly think I have time to watch you paddle around in some river?"  
  
The boy shifted slightly. "N...no...I guess not." He said softly. "I just thought you'd like to have some fun..."  
  
"Ch'. With an idiot like you?"  
  
Goku laughed slightly and rubbed the back of his head. "Ah haha...I guess not." He turned around and headed for the door. "Okay, Sanzo! I'll see you later then!" And with that he was gone in a flash. The blonde just shook his head a bit and sorted his papers.   
  
The chocolate haired boy raced across the field to get to the swimming hole. It wasn't incredibly deep, but it was deep enough that a full grown man could go under. Goku loved to swim, during the last lesson he excelled over the other boys, even with those shackles on him. Dougan had been with him last time during the lesson, and while he was a fairly decent swimmer, he could not keep up with the boy, which made him angry. He did not like that brat being better than him at ANYTHING.   
  
Dougan came to the swimming hole, watching Goku wading around playfully as the other monks told him to stop splashing around. He adjusted his glasses and rolled his eyes as an older monk walked up next to him. "That golden eyed kid of Sanzo's is a real pain in the ass."  
  
The younger boy thought for a moment, before a devious smile crossed his lips. "Too bad we cant get rid of him, huh?" The older monk looked down at him for a moment, before the thought crossed his mind.  
  
"Hmm...did you have something in mind?"  
  
"Maybe..."  
  
Dougan was always thinking about ways of disposing of the golden eyed boy, it made his skin crawl every time he saw him near Sanzo. HIS Sanzo. That boy didn't deserve to breathe the same air as Sanzo, he insisted to himself. He always wondered how his beloved master could put up with such an annoying kid. Dougan and the monk stepped away from eye sight as they went to plot.  
  
The other young monks were in the water by now, and a red haired boy was having a bit of a hard time trying to find his balance. The instructor ordered the group to swim from one end to the other, and of course, Goku was way ahead of the others. His palm touched the side of the bank and he cheered for himself, excited as always as the other children groaned. "I won! I did it!" Suddenly, his golden eyes spotted red hair and flailing arms. The young monk was having a very hard time trying to swim and was going under the water a lot.  
  
Goku quickly went back to help him, going under water and pulling him back to surface. The boy coughed up some water and held his throat, his eyes squeezed tightly shut. "Hey, are you okay?" Goku asked in a worried tone.  
  
"Y...yeah...I'm fine..." The boy said, getting his breath back. "Than-" His gratitude stopped short as he looked up at Goku. He almost winced slightly as he stood up and started to walk away. "I'm...just going to sit down for awhile." He replied as he found a tree stump and sat on the sidelines. Goku was puzzled by the reaction, but at least he saved the boy, so he went back to swimming circles around the other monks. The boy wanted to mentally kick himself, being saved by that annoying outcast was something he had not expected, and he had no idea how to react.  
  
Time went by quickly, and before Goku knew it, it was dark and everyone had to go back to the temple. But of course, Goku was not willing to go just yet as he continued to wade in the water. An older monk came up to the side of the river bank and watched the boy swimming happily. "You really like to swim dont you?" He asked.  
  
Goku spun around and saw the older man before nodding quickly. "Yeah! But everyone else is too slow!"  
  
A smirk grew on the man's lips. "That's because you need a challenge, kid." He motioned for Goku to come closer as the boy obediently swam to shore and climbed onto the bank. The man pulled him over to the side and pulled out some rope. "Give me your wrists." He put his wrists out for the man as he quickly wrapped the rope tightly around them, binding his hands together.  
  
"Hey! What are you doing?" The golden eyed boy retorted and stepped back a bit.  
  
"This is just to help you is all." He knocked Goku off his feet with his ankle swinging under his legs, as he grabbed the boy's foot. "You said you didn't mind a challenge right?"  
  
Goku was silent for a moment as his ankles were wrapped just like his hands. "Are you sure this will help?"  
  
"Trust me..." He left the boy for a moment and came back with a rock tied to some rope.  
  
"...What's that for?" Goku seemed a bit worried now, he didn't like where this challenge was going.  
  
"You'll see..." He tied the heavy rock around the rope binding his ankles together. "It'll just make it harder for you to swim freely is all." He smiled to himself as he hurled up the huge rock, it was definately very heavy, it should be enough to do it's job. "Okay, here we go..." he said in an almost sinister tone as he hurled the stone into the center of the river. Goku was immediately pulled under the water as the weight kept him under. His eyes widened as he tried to swim up to the surface, he was so far away he could only see sunlight on the surface. Goku was in absolute shock, he wasn't expecting him to try and drown him like this, he actually believed the older monk was going to try and help him.  
  
By now he was frantic as he tried to pull himself down and tried to undo the rope around his ankles, but the monk had tied his hands in such a way that he could not get a grasp on the rope. He began to struggle futily against the rope, hoping he'd somehow get to the surface. His chest hurt and he craved air his lungs desperately needed.   
  
'I'm going to die...like this?! Oh gods no...Where's Sanzo? He'll come for me...he'll realize I'm gone...wont he?'  
  
His mind began to cloud and his vision went black as he slipped into unconsciousness.  
  
Meanwhile, Sanzo was working at his desk, he had barely touched the papers on his desk and he just looked absolutely bored. He didn't worry about that monkey at all, nooope, not Sanzo. He knew the boy was having a grand old time swimming and showing off. The blonde monk put out his cigaretted and threw the butt into a huge pile of cigarettes he had gone through in just a few hours.  
  
There was a knock at his door, which startled him slightly considering he hadn't heard actual knocking in a long time. He grunted as a signal for the person to come in and the door opened as a red haired boy came in. He raised an eyebrow at the kid and then went back to his work.  
  
The boy came up to him slowly, his finger twitching a bit before he bowed in front of the man's desk. "H...hello Mister Sanzo..." he said politely.  
  
"I'm busy, kid..." He wrote his signature on a peice of paper, not even reading it just to prove his point. "What do you want?"  
  
"Ah...uh..."  
  
"I dont have all night."  
  
"Sir...um...You're charge...he..." He gulped slightly and fidgeted. "He's under water..."  
  
Sanzo raised an eyebrow. "So?"  
  
"That's...not what I meant...I mean...Someone is trying to drown him...he's in the middle of the swimming hole right now..."  
  
The blonde's eyes twitched for a moment. He knew the monks had tried many times to do away with the boy, and every time Sanzo would manage to save him before too much damage was done. But now...oh...it HAD to be water didn't it? "And you didn't SAVE him?" he asked in irritation.  
  
The boy withdrew slightly. "It's...just...I cant swim very well..." He considered not saying anything, and just let the kid die, he was trouble anyway right? But Goku had saved him when he was drowning, and he couldn't just leave him like that.  
  
Sanzo sighed and stood up. "Take me there, quickly." he ordered. The boy nodded and the two ran through the field to the swimming hole. The boy pointed to the center of the pond.  
  
"He's around there somewehere..."  
  
Sanzo glared at the water. He did not want to go in there, and he hesitated before he slowly took off his robes and was now clad in his leather ensemble and blue jeans. He handed the boy his robe. "Hold this." Then he scanned the water, he saw something that looked similar to brown hair and decided to swim their first as he dove into the water. He wade fairly quickly over as his hand graced over the brown mass, then put his hand down firmly and found something that felt like a skull. He didn't receive a response though, which caused him to worry. He went under and found the boy's shoulder before pulling him upwards, until his discovered something very heavy was keeping the boy down.  
  
The blonde man cursed, came up for air, then dove back down under the water. His fingers searched along the boy's legs as he soon found the problem, a rock weighing the boy down. He fumbled and managed to get the rope free from around his ankles as Sanzo grabbed his charge and quickly swam up to the surface, gasping for air. "Stupid, Saru. Always causing trouble..." He muttered as he swam to shore.  
  
Sanzo pulled the chocolate haired child onto the bank as the young monk watched with wide eyes. "Is he...?"  
  
"He better not be...After I went into the water and saved his stupid ass..."  
  
Goku hadn't made any kind of response nor was he breathing, and Sanzo sure did not feel like giving him CPR. He nudged Goku softly. "Oi, wake up, Saru." The man coaxed softly. "Get your ass up." No luck. "You wont get fed tonight if you dont get up. Still nothing.  
  
"Damn, that normally works." He muttered. He motioned for the boy to bring his robe over as he put Goku against a rock, propping him up as he dug into his robe until he found what he needed. "WAKE UP YOU STUPID SARU!" He yelled before the fan crashed hard onto the boy's skull.  
  
Goku sputtered in confusion as he cough up a good amount of water and started to breathe harshly, unable to talk. Sanzo put the fan to the side and just looked down at the boy. "Good. I didn't feel like digging your stupid grave." He received a confused look by Goku who was holding his head and trying to shake the water from his ears.  
  
The red haired boy looked over Goku, examining him a bit before looking up at Sanzo. "He was down there for a pretty long time...you think he received any brain damage...?"  
  
Sanzo just made a small scoff as he picked up his robe. "You cant damage his brain any more than it already is..." He noticed to boy was having trouble trying to stand was still wobbling. Sanzo tried not to roll his eyes as he wrapped his robe around the boy and put his arms under his legs. "Come on then, you stupid, Saru..." He lifted up the exhausted child who just nodded, grateful for his keeper's help.  
  
The man winced a bit, with those shackles on he was extremely heavy. "Dammit...you're going on a diet..." Sanzo grunted and did his best to carry the boy back home. Goku was too tired to say anything as he laid his head against his master's chest. Sanzo lookied down at him a few times, just to make sure he was still alive since he was being awfully quiet.  
  
After about 5 minutes, Sanzo finally muttered "If you make me go into that damn water again, I'll kill you." And Goku just smirked. 


End file.
